MovieChat Forums > Hatfields and McCoys: Bad Blood (2012) Discussion > Not So Bad

Not So Bad

posted 12 years ago by randl1999-2
3 replies | jump to latest

This was a quiet, unassuming movie, which merely picked out the high points of a very complex historical story, and presented it as well as possible. We probably could have done without Christian Slater, as well as the interaction between him and the military chief. We also have to realize that the time sequence was compressed, because nothing of note happened between the murder of Asa McCoy in 1865, and that of Ellison Hatfield in 1882, which culminated with the raid on the McCoy cabin in 1888.
I've always liked Jeff Fahey, even though he looked older than his uncle, Jim Vance. Go figure! Detractors aside, it was a fictional send up, merely based on the actual story, not to be compared with the TV miniseries.

[–] matthewa-114-165049 10 years ago

No, this didn't "merely pick out the high points". It altered material facts, even who killed whom and why.
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If people want to do fiction, they should do fiction. History is important and should be respected, not hijacked for the sake of entertainment. These were real people.

[–] marmac2768 10 years ago

I agree totally! I am a McCoy, but not one of those that participated in the original feud (my family left the Tug River area in 1858 for Alabama) but my name has people asking me about the feud from time to time. So I have studied it to learn more.

The first thing this movie did was to say that the Hatfield-McCoy feud was the bloodiest feud in American history. There was less than 20 people killed directly attributed to this feud while there were over a hundred killed in the Coy-Martin feud a little later on. There were also many other "shorter, hotter" feuds than this one where more were killed. This one had more notoriety because it was more a land grab and happened between two states jurisdiction. The other family conflicts of that time were localized and didn't involve a Supreme Court ruling as this one did. The Hatfield-McCoy feud was also far more complex than others.

And contrary to most folklore, it didn't start over the sale of a hog.

[–] TennesseeTarheel 9 years ago

EEEXXXXAAACCCTTTLLLYYYY!!!!!! Read my thoughts, pre-emptively! There is so much rich history to tell about the true story, if you are only using it as a storyline guide, them at least change the names and chose a locale in which the actors can emulate the dialect.